The present invention relates to an animal garment and more particularly to an animal garment which selectively applies pressure to known animal acupressure points to control the behavior of the animal.
The use of acupressure on humans can be traced to the practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine ill ancient China. Traditional Chinese medicine has been relied upon by doctors to diagnose disease and treat illness in ancient China. This practice of medicine evolved as an extension of contemporary lifestyle in the third and fourth centuries B.C. As the practitioners of ancient China studied the world around them, they discerned connections between major forces in nature and specific internal organ systems of animals. Based on perceived similarities between the natural elements and the body, these practitioners developed a concept of health care that encompassed both systems.
Using all of their senses, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine used the interwoven systems to both diagnose and treat illnesses. In order to do this, traditional Chinese medicine utilized herb therapy, food therapy, acupressure and massage techniques in all diagnosis and treatment.
In keeping with the interwoven relation of bodily systems, acupressure meridians channel energy in courses beneath the surface of the skin to connect the circulation, lymphatic, muscular, and nervous systems into a network that connects all parts of the body. Along each course, there are highly reactive points (acupressure points) that serve as relay switches to access the Chi energy that flows through the power lines that are the meridian. Just as each meridian is associated with an internal organ, the acupressure points provide surface access to the organ systems.
While there are other recognized tools of alternative medicine that are in accord with the bioethical principals of this new approach to improving animals' health and well being, much improvement is needed and will be achieved when certain bioethical principles that constitute the rights of animals become part of the heart and moral fabric of society. These principals are: right breeding (to avoid harmful hereditary diseases); right socialization and rearing; right handling and understanding; and right environment and nutrition. Acupressure is adjunctive and complementary to these bioethical principles. Acupressure is not a panacea, but it can play a vital role in helping animals cope with chronic degenerative diseases, during convalescence from some acute disease or surgery, and work through all sorts of anxiety based disorders.
Scientific research into the nervous system and how it operates now confirms that both humans and animals have a nervous system which includes neurons or nerve cells interconnected with the brain in a network resembling a telephone system with trillions of miles of complicated wiring along which small electrical signals travel. Communication with the brain also has been demonstrated on a cellular basis which either partially explains or supplements the nerve communication system of the body. Every cell has many ligand receptors. The receptors may be of many different kinds. The receptors basically function as sensing molecules. The receptors operate through bound amino acids and attached ligands to communicate cell to cell throughout the body. These ligands may be neurotransmitters, steroids or peptides. Peptides make up the majority of ligands in the body, and regulate most life processes. Peptides have been found in all areas of the body, and peptides generated in one part of the body are free to travel through the blood and cerebrospinal fluid to bind to receptors on cells in a different part of the body. Receptors are most concentrated in the parts of the body where the five senses receive stimuli, in what are called nodal points. The nodal points are designed to be accessed or modulated by almost all known peptides in order to prioritize or bias the information to be passed to the cell. Physical stimuli can cause a cell to secrete a certain peptide that travels to the brain to bind with its receptor in a way that begets a specific emotional response. The opposite is also true: peptides produced in the brain can travel throughout the body and bind with cells in a way that begets a specific physiological response. What has been found suggests that peptides serve to weave the body's organs and systems in to a single web that reacts to both internal and external environmental changes with complex and subtly orchestrated responses. When these receptors receive a message, they begin any number of activities. These activities can translate into large changes in behavior, physical activities or even mood swings in both humans and animals. While prior to 1960, all brain functions were believed to be determined by synaptic connections between billions of neurons, now, it is believed that information exchange also occurs on a purely chemical, non-synaptic communication between cells and that all of the organs of the body are actually joined to each other in a bidirectional network of communication linked by information carriers known as neuropeptides. However the exact methods of communication the body utilizes still remains a mystery.
The term “acupressure” is used herein to refer to the use of physical stimuli in the form of pressure on these receptors or acupressure points and utilizing both the neuron and neuropeptide communication system to control or to alter or to modify behavior in animals. The term “behavior” is used herein to refer to the actions of an animal, as distinguished from emotion. The term “emotion” is used to refer to feelings, sensations, thoughts, drives, tendencies, etc., such as anger, fear, sadness, joy, contentment, pain, hunger, thirst and the like. Such emotion is distinguished from behavior such as barking, biting, enhancement of the immune system and reactional behavior from fear and anxiety.
In recent years, acupressure has been utilized to deal with all sorts of animals: dogs, cats, horses, orangutans, hamsters, snow leopards, elephants, alligators, cockatoos, lames, cheetahs, etc. Recently, practitioners have been using acupressure techniques to help animals with several problems. It aids recovery from injury, reduces stress, calms reactions to loud noises, tones down aggressive or fearful behavior, reduces shock, helps overcome whelping difficulty, reduces fear biting, reduces stiffness, and accomplishes relaxation for animals training for animal companion therapy in rest homes and hospitals and the like.
Conventionally, acupressure techniques are administered ad hoc by a person trained in the acupressure concepts of traditional Chinese medicine, or by a person knowledgeable about the locations of the various meridians and their relative pressure points. While personal administration of the techniques provide several benefits, such benefits are not exclusive to personal administration of the techniques. These benefits may be realized whenever the pressure points or receptors are contacted in a meaningful way. A drawback to personal administration of the techniques is that the treatment requires a considerable time commitment to change behavior. In the event that the pressure points may be contacted continuously for short periods of time, the treated animal experiences the beneficial effects in changing habitual behavior. Such continuous contact is not practical by personal administration of the techniques, but is possible to achieve with items placed on the animal positioned in relation to various meridians and their respective pressure points. This is especially so when such items provide an optimum amount of pressure to the pressure points or receptors for accessing and positively affecting the Chi energy of the animal. An example of an item that is both possible and practical for this purpose is a specially designed garment.
It is therefore highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment with which animals of all kinds may be treated in accordance with the traditional medicinal concepts of acupressure.
It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment which is utilized for applying pressure to various acupressure points or receptors on the animal when worn. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment which can be utilized to provide pressure to various acupressure points or receptors on the animal with various amounts of pressure when worn. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment for reducing symptoms of stress. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment which can be used to enhance recovery from injury by altering an animal's behavior. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment which can be utilized to calm an animal's reaction to loud noises. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment which can be utilized to reduce aggressive or fearful animal behavior. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment which can be utilized to reduce shock behavior. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment which can be utilized to reduce fear biting. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment which can be utilized to reduce the stress and anxiety of animal training. It is also highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment which can be utilized to reduce the stress and anxiety associated with physical treatment. It is highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment which can be utilized to reduce all sorts of behavior. Finally it is highly desirable to provide a new and improved animal garment which can be utilized to change animal behavior in all of the above instances.